With decisive wins on Monday night, Palmerton will play Jim Thorpe tonight for the championship of the Slatington Rotary Christmas Tournament.

Palmerton-Lehighton

In the first game of the four team tournament, Palmerton jumped out to a 20-7 first period lead over Lehighton and never looked back on their way to a 54-29 victory.

After the Tribe’s, Luke Blauch’s layup tied the score at 7-7, the Bombers went a 13-0 tear to gain a comfortable advantage after the first eight minutes. Palmerton’s run was led by Brayden Hosier’s nine points and and an aggressive man to man defense that caused eight Lehighton turnovers in the period.

Indians’ coach, Trevor Miller, who had to send out a different starting five due to illness that affected several of his players, commented on the number of turnovers that resulted in the big deficit. “We can’t turn the ball over and let them run out and get so many layups,” he said. “That was too much to make up right from the start.”

Bombers’ coach, Ken Termini praised his team’s first half efforts. “We like to be aggressive with our man-to-man defense and when everyone does their job, we can transition into easy buckets.”

In the second period, neither team could make a basket for the first four minutes and Lehighton (1-6) outscored Palmerton by three points in the third, but the Bombers (5-2) extended their lead in the fourth quarter, mainly on the eight points scored by Matt Machalik who finished the night with a game high 18 points.

“Matt is just a special athlete whether he’s wearing a football helmet or he has a basketball in his hands,” said Termini. “He makes plays and he’s a leader on the floor for us.”

Hosier had 13 points to back up Machalik for the Bombers.

Joe Roth led Lehighton with 13.

LEHIGHTON

Roth 5-2-2-13, Lorenz 1-1-2-4, Costenbader 2-0-1-4, Blauch 1-1-2-3, Lutz 1-0-2-2, Hoke 1-0-0-2, Schatz 0-1-2-1, Hawk 0-0-0-o, Johnson 0-0-0-0,Thomas 0-0-0-0, Sazing 0-0-0-Serfas 0-0-0-0, Walling 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-5-11-29.

PALMERTON

Machalik 7-4-5-18, Hosier 5-1-3-13, Reph 2-1-1-6, Grammes 2-2-2-6, K. Sebelin 1-2-2-4, Anthony 1-1-3-3, Rumfield 1-0-0-2, Tworkowski 1-0-0-2, J.Sebelin 0-0-0-0, Robinson 0-0-0-0, Steinmentz 0-0-0-0, Stahler 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-11-16-54.

Lehighton 7 8 10 4 - 29

Palmerton 20 9 7 18 - 54

Three- pointers: Lehighton – Lorenz 1, Roth 1. Palmerton - Hosier 2, Reph -1.

Jim Thorpe-No. Lehigh

Just like Palmerton’s first period run, Jim Thorpe raced out to a 22-3 lead after the first eight minutes and cruised to a 67-35 win over Northern Lehigh.

The rout began with a Derryl Fisher three pointer just 10 seconds into the game. His driving layup 30 seconds later lifted his team to a 5-0 jump on the Bulldogs.

Shooting fouls then put Kaiden Herron on the line three different times where he went 5-for-6, lifting Jim Thorpe to a 10-1 lead.

Colby McHugh hit a triple and Fisher scored 12 of his game high 23 points during the first quarter while the only basket managed by Northern Lehigh was a layup by Ethan Kunkle with 10 seconds left.

In the second period, the Bulldogs found some scoring range with buckets by Nick Frame, Aiden Parvel, and AJ Jiminez, but Thorpe kept its transition game going full speed. A steal by David Richards set up a driving layup by Herron leading to a 24-7 bulge with seven minutes to go before intermission. Bryson Heydt’s full court layup off another steal put the Olympians up by 20 at 31-11.

Jim Thorpe coach, Jason McElmoyle liked the manner in which his team rebounded from a recent loss to Tamaqua.

“We haven’t been shooting well and we’ve not been playing sound defense,” he said. “But tonight we were aggressive and our style of play dictated the tempo of the game.”

Bulldogs’ coach, Patrick Wanamaker talked about his team’s slow start.

“We came out flat and shot ourselves in the foot,” he said. “When you’re down by that many, it’s a tall mountain to climb.”

Northern Lehigh played Thorpe (3-2) more evenly in the third period led by Izaiah Ramos who scored five points. Heydt had a big second half for the Olympians scoring 15 of his season-high 19 points after intermission.

“Bryson was a bit robotic at the start of the game,” said McElmoyle. “But when he began to flash inside and let the game come to him ... he’s a big scoring threat for our team.”

Four players scored in double figures for Jim Thorpe.

Parvel led Northern Lehigh (1-4) with 10 points.

The championship game between Palmerton and Jim Thorpe will start at 8 pm tonight. The consolation match up between Lehighton and Northern Lehigh begins at 6:30.

JIM THORPE

Fisher- 9-2-5-23, Heydt- 7-5-9-19, Herron -3-6-9-12, McHugh -4-12-11, Richards -0-1-2-1, DiSanto -0-1-3-1, Spruill-0-0-0-0, Bradley-0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-16-30-67.

NORTHERN LEHIGH

Parvel – 4-2-3-10, Frame- 3-2-3-8, Ramos -2-0-2-5, Jimenez -1-1-3-3, Smyth- 1-0-0-2, LoPinto-1-0-0-2, Kunkle-1-0-0-2, Buskirk-1-0-0-2, Simms- 0-1-2-1, Silverio -0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-10-19-35.

Jim Thorpe 22 15 14 16 - 67

No. Lehigh 3 12 11 9 - 35

Three-pointers: JT - Fisher 3, McHugh 2. NL - Ramos 1.